STREETSCAPES: 139 Greene Street; The Longest-Running Restoration in New York City

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

Published: November 19, 1989

THINGS just seem to take more time in New York City - like renewing a driver's license, Christmas shopping and, most of all, restoration projects.

The restoration of the Woolworth Building in the 70's, the New York Landmarks Conservancy's Archives Building project in the 80's, and the current exterior work on the San Remo on Central Park - all these approached or surpassed a decade.

Now the longest-running restoration project seems to be 139 Greene Street, a trim little 1825 Federal house south of Houston Street that has been undergoing alterations by fits and starts since 1974.

Early in the 19th century, migration of the elite residential areas tended to follow a northward pattern along Broadway, which variously served as the city's main shopping, entertainment and residential street. After the 1810's, development pushed up past Canal Street, and surrounding side streets were filled up with private residences. In 1824, Anthony Arnoux, a merchant tailor living at 144 Fulton Street, bought the lot at 139 Greene Street and built the present house.

The completed building represented the height of late Federal styling. Subtly varying deep red and orange brick is set off against details in marble: paneled window lintels, a rusticated basement and a molded elliptical stone arch around the doorway. A photograph at the New-York Historical Society taken in August 1937 shows an elegant eight-paneled door flanked by fluted Ionic columns.

According to Regina Kellerman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Historical Society, the use of marble was common in New York building in this period, in part because the warden at Sing Sing, using convict labor to cut Tuckahoe marble, was undercutting normal prices by two-thirds.

Arnoux did not move in until 1834, and it is not clear who initially occupied the house. The 1850 Census suggests that, by mid-century, he was a widower, living there with children Gertrude, age 48, Emily, 32, Alfred, 30, William, 25, and Edwarde, 20, along with Dana Weisenden, a servant.

By the 1850's, a wave of large hotels and restaurants had invaded Broadway in this section. Parts of the present SoHo district, particularly Greene Street, were rife with prostitutes. The Arnoux family moved out in 1860 to a house at 20 East 32d Street.

Timothy Guilfoyle, author of a forthcoming history of prostitution in New York City, called ''City of Eros,'' said in an interview that a woman named Mary Ann Temple was arrested for running a brothel at 139 Greene Street in 1862, and that the 1870 edition of Gentleman's Companion lists a ''Miss Whalen'' as running a similar establishment there. At the time, he said, there were 13 other brothels on the block.

In 1890, the Real Estate Record & Guide described Greene Street as a center for the hatter's trade and noted the end of its former status as a center of prostitution, saying: ''A man can walk through now without being himself too frequently accosted through closed window shutters.''

The house at 139 Greene remained more or less intact and telephone directories after the 1920's give a succession of typical SoHo businesses: trucking, rags, paper stock and wastepaper.

One tenant built a loading dock right on top of the marble steps. Another punched a new, wider doorway through one of the first-floor windows. After 1968 it was owned by the art dealer Richard L. Feigen. In August 1973 - the same month that SoHo was designated a historic district by the Landmarks Preservation Commission - Peter W. Ballantine bought the house for his residence.

Mr. Ballantine received permission from the landmarks agency in 1974 to reopen the first-floor windows, reopen the main entrance, put in new six-over-six sashes and perform other work, and his plans were approved. In 1975, he filed plans with the Department of Buildings for interior changes, but according to Vahe Tiraykian, a spokesman for the agency, the application was not pursued and expired.

BUT Mr. Ballantine did make progress on the exterior and installed a temporary plywood door. Over time, he has begun to fill in the enlarged first-floor window and is now about half done - the opening is covered with plywood. But the six-over-six windows have yet to be installed.

Mr. Ballantine, who is doing some of the restoration work himself, declined a request for an interview, saying ''it isn't the right time.'' Permits from the Landmarks Preservation Commission have no expiration date and the house, obviously unfinished, yet occupied, has become well known in SoHo.

A neighbor at 143 Greene Street said he has known Mr. Ballantine for 20 years and that he is indeed restoring the building, but has had trouble with the size of the brick. But, he added, ''I think it's going to be a lifelong thing.''

The 1825 Federal house at 139 Greene Street, in 1940 (Municipal Archives)